82 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1918 



or not the idea could be applied to farming. 



I don't think the skins could be used thus 

 and my plans limit the home garden. I here 

 is not a doubt in my mind regarding the feasi- 

 bility of planting cut pieces which could be 

 cut very uniform, more uniform than seed 

 pieces can by dividing the entire potato; 

 and there is no reason why this couldn't be 

 applied to farming. 



THE yield of my potato patch was at the 

 rate of 365 bushels to the acre which is 

 not large for home gardens where the best of 

 care can be given, where weeds are not allowed 

 to grow, where the ground can be kept con- 

 stantly stirred to promote growth, in fact 

 where close attention can be given the crop. 

 But it was not the field I was interested in 

 it was simply the comparative differences 

 between the three different methods of repro- 

 duction and frankly there was so little differ- 

 ence that I unhesitatingly recommend the 

 planting of either skins or cut eyes. When 

 potatoes are as scarce and expensive as they 

 were last year, using cut pieces is too much like 



putting gold into the ground to get silver out. 



The potato after all can be grown with 

 very little difficulty. A fairly rich soil and 

 constant cultivation are the important factors 

 to assure success. When the potato is at- 

 tacked by the beetle or by blight occasional 

 sprayings with bordeaux mixture and arsen- 

 ate of lead combined will protect the crop. 



In Europe the yield of potatoes is con- 

 erably higher than in the United States. 

 The average production per acre for 10 

 years from 1905 to 1914 in the United 

 States was 96.4 bushels, Hungary 120.4, 

 France, 129.6, Germany 204.3 an d United 

 Kingdom 213.8, so after all, Ireland has a 



I THE AUTHOR SAYS ABOUT THIS 1 

 ARTICLE: 



"I realize this is directly opposite to the 1 



1 pamphlets and bulletins sent out by agri- \ 



1 cultural and government experiment sta- I 



1 tions, but the test was fair in every way and f 

 [ this is a truthful statement of the result." 



just claim on the white potato. Why do we 

 produce less than ioo bushels per acre when 

 the United Kingdom produces more than 200? 

 Why are potatoes which were imported into 

 Europe from the Western Hemisphere more 

 at home there than here, their next door 

 neighbors? The one big reason is that we 

 haven't applied ourselves as thoroughly as 

 they have abroad. That is a hard statement. 

 I am distinctly American, a believer in 

 American institutions and American methods, 

 but the truth must be faced in potato culture. 

 We are not as advanced as we should be. 



One has but to visit the east end of Long 

 Island to prove the truth of this statement. 

 The farmers there all average better than 

 200 bushels to the acre. Some might say 

 the soil is particularly adapted to the potato, 

 which might be true to some degree, but the 

 truth is the farmers there have studied the % 

 potato, they plant them, harrow them, culti- 

 vate them, spray them, harvest them, and 

 market them on a scientific basis, and only 

 under such methods will the returns reach the 

 standards which should be attained. 



The Succession Problem in California sidney b. mitchell 



DIFFICULTY OF KEEPING UP APPEARANCES IN A CLIMATE WHERE GROWTH IS ACTIVE FOR ALL THE TWELVE 



MONTHS— SOME PRACTICAL COMBINATIONS AND COLOR HARMONIES 



THE Eastern gardener who spends 

 four or five months of each year 

 waiting for spring has nothing but 

 envy for the man [on the Pacific 

 slope who has so little winter and so much 

 spring. He probably never considers the 

 difficulties of keeping up a garden twelve 

 months of the year, and particularly of pre- 

 venting the places "out of bloom" from be- 

 coming the greater part of his borders. 

 Where daffodils do so well and bloom so 

 early, who can restrain himself from planting 

 hundreds, which will flower for a month or so 

 and leave gaping wounds for the rest of the 

 year? No one who has seen the Bearded 

 Irises thrive as they do in California can do 

 without many of the best of a race so adapted 

 to his natural conditions, yet after May where 

 they have been planted he can hope for no- 

 thing but their clean (but somewhat uninter- 

 esting) foliage for ten months more. 



Of course there is one quite simple solution 

 to all this, that is, to have several small gar- 

 dens, one devoted to spring-flowering bulbs, 

 another to summer flowers, perhaps a third to 

 Chrysanthemums, always forgetting the one 

 out of season. But as this ideal arrangement 

 is not open to the many of us who must live 

 near a city and cannot afford to buy or take 

 care of more than a lot 50 by 150 feet, I have 

 thought it possible others might be interested 

 in some very practical devices to keep the 

 garden in bloom. Many of these I have 

 tested myself, some have been tried by my 

 friends, while others were used at the Panama 

 Pacific International Exposition in the flower 

 gardens under the care of Mr. Carl Purdy. 



In the following recipes I have given first 

 the flowers used with the time of blooming of 

 each crop, followed by a few suggestions in 

 regard to planting or sowing. 



These schemes in practice are not at all 

 complicated. A few years ago I began a new 

 garden on an open hillside. I soon learned 



that I was going to have succession crops 

 anyway. The difference is that at the begin- 

 ning I had a succession of weeds, which I 

 really believe were as much work as my pre- 

 sent succession of flowers, and less satisfy- 

 ing to my soul. 



1. Daffodils (February — March); Spanish Iris (April 

 May); Calliopsis (July — October) 



PLANT the Daffodils and the Spanish 

 Iris at the same time. October is best, 

 as Daffodils profit by the earlier rains and 



Spanish Iris bulbs deteriorate if kept out of 

 the ground too late in autumn. Daffodils 

 may go with base of bulbs six inches below 

 the surface and about six inches apart. The 

 Iris need not be deeper than three inches and 

 may be spaced among the Daffodils. This 

 allows room for both to be left a second year, 

 after which they are better lifted and divided. 

 The different depths of planting allow free 

 root run for each variety of bulb. Put the 

 Daffodils in first, marking the location of 



Early April. Darwin Tulips in various shades of blue and pinK fill left hand border. Earlier varieties of tall 

 bearded Iris are also in bloom, for in California the season for these extends for over two months. Only lavender, 

 blue, white and pink ones were used in this part of the garden. Pheasant Eye Pinks finish off the border in the same 

 color range. (See page 84) 



